Accordingly on the 20th of January, 1863, we broke camp at daylight and our army was once more on the move. This expedition is known to the old soldiers of the Army of the Potomac as "Burnside's Mud March." After a march of ten or fifteen miles up the Rappahannock we reached the vicinity of Bank's Ford about dark, with the intention of crossing there and driving the enemy from their works on the south side of the river. About midnight a warm wind set in from the south, the rain began to fall, and continued to fall with more or less violence for the next three days. After two days of this kind of weather the project of attacking the enemy was abandoned and we got ready to go back to our old camps. The return march was a great trial for the men. With the rain beating pitilessly, the roads and fields soon became a vast sea of mud. Heavy details were made from all the regiments to build corduroy roads in order to bring along our trains and artillery. Finally we reached our old camp, where our huts were still standing, and these were soon roofed with our shelter tents and we were once more tolerably comfortable. General Burnside was relieved from the command of the Army of the Potomac, and was succeeded by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker on January 24th. The announcement of Hooker's appointment was hailed with delight by the officers and men of our (Birney's) division, where his valor and ability were well known. He was one of the original division commanders of our (3d) corps. We looked on him as a man of the same stamp as the former commander of our division, the lamented Kearny. The divisions of Hooker and Kearny had fought side by side on the Peninsula and second Bull Run campaigns, where they acquired renown and honor. The appointment of Hooker was soon marked by an improvement in the commissary department and in the drill and discipline of the army. Soon after the battle of Fredericksburg certain evil-disposed newspapers and persons at the North were loud in their assertions that the Army of the Potomac was tired of the war, and demoralized, and circulated reports derogatory to the character of that army. To confute such reports, and to denounce those with whom they originated, a meeting of the officers and men of the 57th was held on February 26th, at which resolutions were adopted denouncing as false the calumnious reports circulated concerning the army. One of the resolutions declared that the 57th would sustain the government in the future as in the past, a resolution which was made good in the following December by three-fourths of the regiment re-enlisting for three years. Our regiment was the first to adopt resolutions of this nature which were ordered to be published in the newspapers in the counties in which the regiment was raised. Our example was followed by many of the regiments of the army.